Made it back from 5 days in the islands. What an awesome cruise. I highly recommend the San Juans. Trip was a huge success, no equipment/mechanical failures of any kind. We wound up doing an 82 mile loop through the islands and used only 5 gallons of gas the whole time. We went from Bellingham -> Sucia Island -> Friday Harbor -> Wasp Islands cruising -> Cypress Island -> Lummi Island and back to Bellingham. Just awesome!
The little h23.5 performed well. I found that in big wind the boat didn't handle well with reefed main and jib. When I ran just the full main I was able to keep the boat balanced by easing the main halyard a bit to induce a little twist spilling air, and running the boat tight to the wind, main-sheet eased a bit when close hauled. We were 17-18 knots of wind sustained and I was able to run the full main like this and make over 6 knots steady. We hit some big gusts and the weather helm got tough, but the boat never heeled excessively or rounded up too badly. Really impressed with her performance relative to what I've heard/read about.
Pics as promised:
The little h23.5 performed well. I found that in big wind the boat didn't handle well with reefed main and jib. When I ran just the full main I was able to keep the boat balanced by easing the main halyard a bit to induce a little twist spilling air, and running the boat tight to the wind, main-sheet eased a bit when close hauled. We were 17-18 knots of wind sustained and I was able to run the full main like this and make over 6 knots steady. We hit some big gusts and the weather helm got tough, but the boat never heeled excessively or rounded up too badly. Really impressed with her performance relative to what I've heard/read about.
Pics as promised: